In September 1939 a resurgent Germany invaded Poland, triggering war with Britain and France. Australia and New Zealand immediately joined in support of Britain. However this Second World War was to prove to be even more daunting than the first, with Germany conquering France and most of Western Europe in the first ten months.

Main Events

On the night of July 7, Chinese and Japanese troops exchanged fire in the vicinity of the Marco Polo bridge, an important access route to Beiping (Beijing). The confused skirmish escalated into a full-scale battle in which Beiping and Tianjin fell to Japanese forces, and marked the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War.in wikipedia

The United States of America and the United Kingdom agree to administer Canton and Enderbury Islands, in the disputed but uninhabited Phoenix Islands, as an Anglo-American condominium for fifty years. The remaining Phoenix Islands, although still claimed by the US under the Guano Islands Act, are either abandoned or remain under British control.in wikipedia

Upon receiving word of the British declaration of war on Germany, Prime Minister Robert Menzies of the Commonwealth of Australia also declares war. Prime Minister Joseph Savage of the Dominion of New Zealand follows suit a few hours later, having consulted his Cabinet.in wikipedia

The First Echelon of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force leaves New Zealand for Egypt, via Australia where it links up with a group from the Second Australian Imperial Force. The parties arrive in Egypt on 7 January 1940.in wikipedia

On 13 December, three Royal Navy cruisers - the British HMS Exeter and HMS Ajax, and the New Zealand HMS Achilles - found and engaged the German merchant raider and pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee off the River Plate near the coast of Uruguay. The ensuing battle saw all four ships damaged and forced the Graf Spee to seek refuge in Montevideo, capital of neutral Uruguay, that night. Considering himself trapped and told he could only stay in Montevideo for 72 hours, the Graf Spee’s captain Hans Langsdorff scuttled his ship on 17 December.in wikipedia

Adolf Hitler and top military officials of Nazi Germany signed an armistice with representatives of the French Third Republic at 18:36 near Compiègne, France - the exact location of the 1918 armistice ending World War I. This new armistice ended French involvement in World War II on the side of the Allies and established a German zone of occupation in northern and western France, leaving the remainder (”Vichy France”) to be governed by the French.in wikipedia